Yellowstone holds a special place in America's heart. As the world's
first national park, it is globally recognized as the crown jewel of
modern environmental preservation. But the park and its surrounding
regions have recently become a lightning rod for environmental conflict,
plagued by intense and intractable political struggles among the federal
government, National Park Service, environmentalists, industry, local
residents, and elected officials. The Battle for Yellowstone asks why
it is that, with the flood of expert scientific, economic, and legal
efforts to resolve disagreements over Yellowstone, there is no
improvement? Why do even seemingly minor issues erupt into impassioned
disputes? What can Yellowstone teach us about the worsening
environmental conflicts worldwide?
Justin Farrell argues that the battle for Yellowstone has deep moral,
cultural, and spiritual roots that until now have been obscured by the
supposedly rational and technical nature of the conflict. Tracing in
unprecedented detail the moral causes and consequences of large-scale
social change in the American West, he describes how a "new-west" social
order has emerged that has devalued traditional American beliefs about
manifest destiny and rugged individualism, and how morality and
spirituality have influenced the most polarizing and techno-centric
conflicts in Yellowstone's history.
This groundbreaking book shows how the unprecedented conflict over
Yellowstone is not all about science, law, or economic interests, but
more surprisingly, is about cultural upheaval and the construction of
new moral and spiritual boundaries in the American West.
